Questions for Caro Llewellyn

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Sydney Writers' Festival director Caro Llewellyn has ploughed
through 200 books and travelled the world in preparation for this
year's event.

You've read about 200 books in the past year as part of
programming the festival. Has reading become a task for
you?

[Laughs] It's still a pleasure and I think when it stops
becoming a pleasure I will need to move on. There is a lot of
reading, but that's the joy and a privilege as well. I don't ever
want to lose the joy of reading and the preciousness of books.
Reading is a big part of my life and always has been, although
sometimes I think I just want to watch mindless television.

Your contract expires in October. Are you hoping to stay on
as festival director?

I think we get through this one then work it out. I'd love to
[stay on], but I do think the festival should operate like it does
downstairs [Sydney Festival] and that there is a new artistic
director. I have my strong taste and ideas about what the festival
is, and I think the city should get somebody else's point of view
and another fresh look. But I wouldn't mind doing it, I'm not quite
ready to give it up.

In terms of selecting the program, your personal taste
obviously comes through, but are there necessary components that
make up the festival each year?

At the moment we have a responsibility - and people want it - to
kind of look at some of the global issues and the politics of
what's going on. It sounds stupid, but we live in really, really
confusing times and the issues are harder to work out. People are
confused, I mean I'm confused. I don't know what the hell is going
on or how to unravel where we all are. I think we're in a mess
[laughs].

You are renowned for sourcing some unknowns and introducing
festival audiences to new talent. Where do you discover these
writers?

Any number of weird places. I read a lot of the literary
magazines, The New York Times, London Review Of
Books. Just odd things occasionally jump out and they may not
be available here, so you make odd calls and try to track down
books and that's always fun. And then try and find the author,
which is even more fun. I've travelled a bit, which has made a huge
difference, going to see publishers overseas. Last year I went to
Canada and spent time there, so there's a lot of Canadians who
aren't known here that are coming to the festival. Every time I
travel I come home with a suitcase just totally full with new
books.

Your first memory of reading was of your father reading
Thumbelinato you. He spent much of his life in a
wheelchair and he had a great influence on your life. How would you
describe your relationship?

He got polio when he was 19. He was one of the last cases in
Australia and he got it unbelievably badly. He was in an iron lung
for two years. My mother was a nurse. They fell in love and he
eventually got out of the iron lung and into a wheelchair and they
got married and had me and my brother. When you have something like
that in your life, I think you know life can deal anything at you.
A lot of people take life for granted in a way that is unbelievable
and people are surprised when accidents happen and when tragedies
happen. It's not that I'm cynical about life, I'm not, but I just
think that you've got to make the most of it because you pay for it
and you never know what the hell's going to happen. Even though
things might terrify me and I don't really want to do them, I
always say yes because it may not be there tomorrow and you may not
have an opportunity.

And your mother, poet Kate Llewellyn? Was she a big literary
influence on you?

I think so. I grew up around a lot of writers in the house and
poets and poetry readings, you know, being shamed as she's reading
some poem about me and my saggy nappy. It's a great thing to grow
up around books and be brought up in that community.

You've also been published in your own right, with three
non-fiction books under your belt, including Jobs For The
Girls, a book about women running small businesses. How
did this come about?

I was running a business and nobody knew what the hell it was
like. I was doing music management then moved away from that and
went into desktop publishing. People had no idea and used to be
really patronising and pat me on the back. It was really, really
tough. A friend of mine was doing the same thing and so we just got
together one day and said someone should write a book about
this.

How did you fall into running your own business?

I was a single mum and I had been working as an office manager
in this company and I was going nuts with boredom. I rang up this
friend who was running her own business and said, "Can I come and
be your partner?" I told everyone I was leaving this quite
well-paid office manager job and they said, "You're nuts, you're a
single mum that's really irresponsible" and I said, "It's not
irresponsible - I'm miserable, and that's irresponsible". It was
great, it was fun for a long time.

You also wrote a cook book called Fresh and edited a
collection of essays called My One True Love. You seem to
particularly enjoy literary novels, but do you feel there is a
place for all genres from so-called airport novels to chick lit and
beyond?

My feeling is that reading anything is better than reading
nothing, and there is some great chick lit. Because something is
popular doesn't necessarily mean it's bad, the opposite is true. If
people read something, then they'll pick up something else and who
knows where people go on their journey of reading?

Do you think there are essential ingredients that make a good
book?

There are. I think there's a discussion going on in all art
forms about whether there's [a standard of what is] good, or is it
just personal taste? I actually think there are criteria for
beautiful writing. I think you know when the hairs on the back of
your neck are standing on end from a sentence. There are lots of
good writers, there are lots of mediocre writers and there are a
few who absolutely shine. They have a special talent that they are
blessed with, they work hard at it. I don't think any of those we
think are the great writers of the world don't struggle every day
with what they do, and have doubts. Yeah, you have a gift, but you
have to work at it.

The Sydney Writers' Festival will be held from May 23 to 29.
Phone 9252 7729 or see http://www.swf.org.au.